Look at these two men, do you see the difference?
One had a dream of making the best young british football team to rule the world, the other have got all the money in the world, and is determined to make his new-rich Man City the best team in the world, with or without British players and whatever the cost.
The Peter Ridsdale era in Leeds is known all over the football world, unfortunately not for its success, but for its massive fall from grace – Ridsdale (and manager David O’Leary) decided that they wanted to make Leeds a dominant force in European football, and they wanted to do it with the prime of English talent plus some very good players from abroad. Among the players they signed for the club were: Rio Ferdinand (£18mill), Mark Viduka (£6mill), Robbie Fowler (£11mill), Robbie Keane (£12mill) and many many more, along with the, for that time, very expensive signings the club had a wonderful youth academy, which saw the likes of Harry Kewell, Jonathan Woodgate, Stephen McPhail & Alan Smith come through to the first team. Ridsdale & O’Leary’s biggest problem was the way they financed their player purchases, they borrowed money at a ridicules interests, and the finances of the club exploded between their hands. They paid enormous amounts of money in wages to players who weren’t even in the starting 11, let alone in the first 15 of the team. There is a story going around on Seth Johnson (signed from Derby for £7mill, played 54 games – DOH!), the story goes: “Seth Johnson went into the boardroom to discuss his contract, him and his agent went in saying "Ask for £20,000, settle for £15,000." So they went in, and they were offered £25,000. "WHAT?" Seth Johnson replied, obviously shocked at how good the deal is. Then Ridsdale replied, "Ok then, £35,000" Thinking Johnson was unhappy at the terms” – This story, if true, seems to sum up the way Ridsdale ran the club perfectly. When the players from the youth academy contracts ran out the club also had to give them new MASSIVE contracts, and suddenly, not unlike Man City of today, we had too many players on to big contracts. Ridsdale and O’Leary had build their dream on quicksand, and they knew we had to get into the Champions League year after year to keep the wheels running, as we all know we only managed to get in there once (2000/2001) and after that it all fell apart. The money we got from playing in the UEFA cup could not pay the loans or the wages and we were forced to start a fire sale in the summer of 2002, and even though we got some money in, it wasn’t enough – actually Leeds continued to pay some wages to former players until 2004 I believe . Players left, chairman left, manger(s) left and in 2004 Leeds left the Premier League and started a catastrophic downfall, which we are still dealing with.
The last two seasons have had a more positive feel about them, Leeds are after three years in League 1 finally back in the Championship, players are denied massive contracts and transfer funds are spent, very very, rarely. But for those who remember our downfall from the Ridsdale days, I think we should appreciate the fact that we still have a club to support and remember that it takes time to build a team, unless of course you have the world richest man as owner!
This brings me to the reason for this blog; the crazy amounts Manchester City are currently spending on transfers. I have just read that they have agreed a fee with Arsenal to sign Samir Nasri, a player with 1 year left on his contract, the fee is believed to be around £23mill! The signing will take Sheik Mansur’s spending in City to a staggering £370mill – fair play to him, he does have the money, but the wages he gives players to join Manchester City is a joke and is ruining football. Players like Adebayor, Wright-Phillips, Bellamy & Santa Cruz are rotting is the reserves because no one can afford to pay their salaries. And what will happen in Manchester City or Chelsea for that matter when the rich guys get sick of their new “toy” and offload the club? They will most likely do a “Leeds” and disappear into the big nothingness. And when they do, and the other “big” clubs will too, Leeds United will stand on the sideline with a healthy economy and be ready to re-take OUR places at the top of the Premier League.
I don’t know how this situation should be solved, if we should learn from American sports and make a salary cap or if we should just let the money ruin football (even more)?
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